Friday, June 29, 2018

It’s hard to say now what
direction the protests will take, but they could turn out to be the U.S.
version of Argentina’s escraches. Someday members of our political elite may
finally have to answer for their crimes in front of a judge and a jury.

By David L. Wilson, MR
Online

June 29, 2018

Seven years of military
dictatorship in Argentina ended in 1983, but the regime’s officers remained a
powerful force. The newly formed democratic government tried to appease them by
passing two laws that granted almost total impunity for the junta’s many
crimes: the “disappearance” of as many as 30,000 people, systematic torture,
the dumping of live detainees from airplanes, and the practice of seizing the
children of murdered activists and handing them over to childless military
couples.

In the mid-1990s many of the
survivors began fighting back against the impunity.[...]

Sunday, June 24, 2018

The activists at Families For Freedom sent out
this email on June 22. We’re reposting their important message in full as a
reminder that the immigrant rights movement now has the initiative and we can’t
afford to let it slip away. (You can contribute to FFF here.)—TPOI
editor.

In angered response to the images
and recordings of children and babies torn from their parents at the border,
the media and political discourse on immigration has leapt forward in the past
two weeks. We have seen previously marginalized analysis enter the mainstream,
with cable news pundits making connections between family separation,
residential schools and slavery, commentators discussing the inextricable links
between the immigration and criminal punishment systems, and political
candidates running with #AbolishICE in their platforms.

The blinders are lifting but
those who have been on the front lines have seen this coming. However, being
right is only meaningful if it both motivates and directs action. As more
people grow more confident calling for the abolition of ICE, we need to ensure
that our efforts are in alignment and focused about our objectives just as we
have been about ending the separation of families. Our goal is freedom, point
blank and unequivocal. This means ending all forms of detention, including the
electronic shackles.

We are clear about our goals and
actions. Families for Freedom maintains two mottos that inform our strategy:
Name the Oppressor, and Make Them Bleed.

Weare laser focused on the two ghouls that have led the Trump
administration’s acceleration of the detention and deportation system: Stephen
Miller and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. They are the ones pushing the buttons
on the present terror. They are organized and they have detailed
plansto carry out their program of ethnic cleansing in pursuit of a
white country. We know what kind of people they are: white supremacists with clear
and unambiguous
histories. Targeting them directly means also targeting the networks that
support them and that have beencritical to their growth, including the fascist anti-immigrant
foundations NumbersUSA, Center for Immigration Studies, and FAIR. These groups
can be fought. Sessions can
be brought down.

There is no question that the
current nightmare predates Trump, that the legal and carceral apparatus
inherited by these goons was built and maintained by Clinton, Bush, and Obama.
But as long as Sessions and Miller are close to power, our most urgent task is
taking them out.

As the folks at Grassroots
Leadership pointed
out yesterday, it is also a matter of stripping them of their tools.The
mechanism Sessions employed to separate children from their families is the
criminalization of immigration—specifically the prosecution of all migrants
arrested crossing the southern border. Almost half of all federal criminal
prosecutions in 2017 were for the crime of crossing the border. This is a piece
of the many ways immigrants end up in the crosshairs of the detention and
deportation system: from the arrests of asylum seekers at the border to the
detention and deportation of long-time residents due to criminal convictions.
If the Democrats in Congress who believe themselves to be allies of immigrants
are serious about ending this violence, they need to bring about the end of the
prosecution of illegal entries. They also need to bring about the removal of
Steven Miller, seeing that “those who are appointed, can be disappointed.”

With the targets and the horizons
defined, the actions we take to make ‘em bleed in the short term have more
clarity. As Bayard Rustin said: “The only weapon we have is our bodies and we
need to tuck them in places so wheels don’t turn.” The recent actions in
Portland, D.C., New York, and all the others exemplify this.

Families for Freedom remains
strong in the call to end the criminalization of immigration, to abolish ICE,
and to destroy the detention and deportation machine. To end business as usual
we need to step outside our comfort zones and take action. Below are just a
couple of things that you can do right away and there will be more as things
unfold, so stay vigilant and see you in the streets!

Thursday, June 21, 2018

There’s major pushback against
Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting family units seeking
asylum—protests at ICE offices, a new sanctuary action, public shaming of
rightwing officials. The resistance doesn’t seem to be letting up, and street
protests are planned across the nation for June 30.—TPOI editor

Mothers and babies occupy the New
York City ICE Office to protest Trump administration 'zero tolerance'
immigration policy

Inside the Manhattan Federal Building. Photo: ACT.tv

By Victoria Bekiempis and
Janon Fisher, NY Daily News

June 21, 2018

Angry moms, some rocking infants
in Baby Bjorns, crowded onto the ninth floor of the federal building Thursday
in downtown Manhattan to air their grievances against the Trump
administration’s “zero policy” toward border crossing.

Though the policy of separating
children from their parents was reversed Wednesday with an executive order, the
group of mad moms said they were still upset.[…]

Guatemalan-born mother Debora
Barrios-Vasquez fights deportation from Upper West Side church

The 32-year-old has two
children, who are U.S. citizens.

Debora Barrios-Vasquez. Photo: Abigail Weinberg

By Abigail Weinberg, amNewYork

June 21, 2018

A Guatemalan-born woman facing
deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking physical sanctuary
in an Upper West Side church, the New Sanctuary Coalition announced at a news
conference Thursday.

Debora Barrios-Vasquez, 32, fled
Guatemala in 2005 and has been living in New York ever since. Her children, 10
and 2, are both United States citizens. She was pulled over for a traffic
violation in 2011 and had regular check-ins with U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement since then, but in February, ICE ordered her deportation.[…]

Kirstjen Nielsen Is Confronted by
Protesters at Mexican Restaurant: ‘Shame!’

By Sarah Mervosh, New York
Times

June 20, 2018

Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary
of homeland security, got an earful while she was eating dinner at a Mexican
restaurant in Washington on Tuesday night.

With tensions continuing to
escalate over the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy
that separates children from their families after illegal crossings at the
border, a group of protesters confronted her.[…]

White House senior adviser
Stephen Miller was called a fascist earlier this week while dining at a Mexican
restaurant in Washington, D.C., according to the New York Post.

The encounter took place on
Sunday at Espita Mezcaleria. The Post reports that a patron of the restaurant
called out Miller — an immigration hard-liner — over the Trump administration's
"zero tolerance" policy that separates migrant families caught
crossing the border illegally.[…]

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

[T]here’s a second way the elite can exploit immigrant
workers—as scapegoats. When people like Dan and Roseanne complain about their
economic problems, the superrich and their hired propagandists point their
fingers at undocumented immigrants.

By David L. Wilson, MR Online

June 18, 2018

On May 8, a few weeks before its cancellation, the popular
sitcom Roseanne devoted an episode to immigration.

The main focus was on the title character’s anit-Muslim
prejudices, but the plot hinged on a problem for Roseanne’s husband, a
construction contractor: his loss of drywall installation work to a rival who
employs undocumented immigrants. “I got underbid on Al’s job,” Dan, the
husband, explains to Roseanne. “He’s using illegals… It ain’t right, Rosie.
These guys are so desperate they’ll work for nothing, and we’re getting screwed
in the process.”

1929: Immigration Act. For the first
time makes it a crime to enter the country by fraud or anywhere other than at
an official port of entry. This becomes a misdemeanor punishable by fine or
imprisonment or both. Reentry of a previously deported alien is now a felony.
The act adds two deportable classes: immigrants convicted of carrying any weapon
or bomb and sentenced to any term of six months or more, and immigrants
sentenced to a year or more for violation of Prohibition laws. Known as
“Blease’s Law,” for the white supremacist senator who sponsored it.

Here is a link
to an article by Kelly Lytle Hernandez giving some more history on the law,
which was proposed by a white supremacist from South Carolina.

We weren’t able to find the text of the law online. If any
reader knows how to access the text, please write us at thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com.
Also, we welcome suggestions about other additions to the chronology, or any
corrections you feel are necessary. We want this chronology to be a useful tool
for people trying to understand the origins of today’s immigration system.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

As outrage rises over the Trump
administration’s family separation policy, Republican leaders have been trying
to put the blame elsewhere—for instance, on the 1997 Flores agreement. In fact,
on June 14 the GOP’s House leadership announced that it had a “moderate” bill
that would end the family separations. It turns out the actual
textwould only end the Flores agreement.

We explain a little about the
settlement and its history in Chapter 11 of The Politics of Immigration:
Questions and Answers.

Locking Up Kids

In July 1985, four girls ages thirteen to sixteen seeking
refuge from war-ravaged El Salvador sued the U.S. government and two private
for-profit contractors over their detention. One of the plaintiffs was detained
at a facility run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in Laredo,
Texas, where authorities subjected her to strip search procedures—including
vaginal and anal inspections—every time her attorney visited. The other girls,
including lead plaintiff Jenny Lisette Flores, were held at a detention center
in Pasadena, California, operated by Behavioral Systems Southwest. The children
were not allowed to see visitors, and were not provided with any opportunities
for education or recreation.

At the time, U.S. border and immigration authorities were
detaining immigrant children—as many as 2,000, according to advocates—together
with unrelated adults under prisonlike conditions. The numbers had grown after
the government changed its policy in September 1984 and began releasing
unaccompanied minors only to a parent or guardian; previously children could be
released to any responsible adult. Advocates said the new policy scared away
unauthorized parents, who feared arrest if they tried to claim their children.

Flores v. Reno was finally resolved in 1997 with the legally
binding “Flores Settlement Agreement,” mandating specific protections for
minors in immigration custody. Some of the settlement’s rules were codified
into law over a decade later with the passage of the 2008 Trafficking Victims
Protection Reauthorization Act. Under the Flores settlement rules,
unaccompanied minors from Canada or Mexico are generally returned home
“voluntarily” after a few days in custody. Children from other countries must
be transferred within seventy-two hours to the Department of Health and Human
Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which releases them to a sponsor
or a shelter and provides support services through its Division for
Unaccompanied Children’s Services.

[We’re
occasionally posting excerpts from the new edition ofThe Politics of
Immigration: Questions and Answers. You can orderhereor from your favorite bookseller.]

Friday, June 15, 2018

A longtime member of Families For
Freedom is in danger of being removed.

In protest of his prolonged
detention, Pius Iyamu has been on hunger strike since May 11, 2018. In what
appears to be retaliation for his strike, ICE and jail officials at Irwin
County Correctional Facility indicated yesterday their intent to put Pius on a
plane to Texas to facilitate his deportation in the coming days. As of this
morning, neither Pius's wife nor Families For Freedom are aware of Pius's
location.

In addition to the threat of
removal, these officials told Pius that they would pursue criminal charges
against him if he did not break his hunger strike. They are using the threat of
further incarceration in an attempt to force him to relent to his removal after
a period of brave and solitary resistance.

Families For Freedom has been in
consistent contact with Pius and his family since 2013, when he was first
detained by ICE. We supported Pius during his incarceration then, eventually
helping him get released. He was arrested and incarcerated again in 2016, and
has spent the intervening two years separated from his wife and daughters and
detained in some of the worst facilities in the country.

He was arrested and incarcerated
again in 2016, and has been separated from his wife and daughters since. One
year ago, Pius filed a habeas corpus petition to challenge his prolonged
detention, which the government has dragged its heels on despite no travel
document being issued for his removal. Now, after keeping Pius in the dark
about the status of his case for months, the government is acting suddenly in
what appears to be retaliation for his hunger strike.

On the phone with us yesterday,
Pius said the following: "I started this hunger strike because of the
situation I am in. I have been held by ICE for two years with no court date.
They have pushed me around from state to state, facility to facility, east to
west coast. I have decided to go on hunger strike because I feel like someone
needs to know what's going on with me... I am a father with a wife and
daughters at home. They have a lot of medical issues and I am just trying to
get back to them. It's hard. This is hard. All I am worried about now is my
freedom. Any help and support that anyone can give to me will mean a lot. I
just want to get free."

Please support Pius and his
family by sharing this with your networks and contacting the Atlanta field
office by phone and email.

Ask ICE to stop its coercive
intimidation of Pius and demand he be released to his family.

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

On June 11 Attorney General Jeff
Sessions overturned a 2016 Board of Immigration Appeals decision supporting
asylum for an abused Salvadoran woman. The decision was expected but is still
shocking in the breadth of its effort to undo two decades of immigration
decisions.—TPOI editor

Retired Immigration Judges and
Former Members of the Board of Immigration Appeals Statement in Response to
Attorney General’s Decision in Matter of A-B

June 11, 2018

“[T]he Attorney General today
erased an important legal development that was universally agreed to be
correct... We hope that appellate courts or Congress through legislation will
reverse this unilateral action and return the rule of law to asylum
adjudications.”

Statement of Coretta Scott King
on the Nomination of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III for the United States
District Court Southern District of Alabama

Senate Judiciary Committee

Thursday, March 13, 1986

In 1986 Coretta Scott King strongly
opposed Jeff Sessions’ appointment to the federal bench. Here is an excerpt
from her testimony:

I do not believe Jefferson
Sessions possesses the requisite judgment, competence, and sensitivity to the
rights guaranteed by the federal civil rights laws to qualify for appointment
to the federal district court. Based on his record, I believe his confirmation
would have a devastating effect on not only the judicial system in Alabama, but
also on the progress we have made everywhere toward fulfilling my husband’s
dream that he envisioned over twenty years ago. I therefore urge the Senate
Judiciary Committee to deny his confirmation.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Testimony given by David Bacon
at the People's Tribunal at the West County Detention Center in Richmond, CA

By David Bacon, 48 Hills

June 4, 2018

We've heard the living experiences
of people who have had no alternative to leaving home to escape violence, war
and poverty, who now find themselves imprisoned in the detention center in
front of us. And we have to ask, who is
responsible? Where did the violence and
poverty come from, that forced people to leave home, to cross our border with
Mexico, and then to be picked up and incarcerated here?

Overwhelmingly, it has come from
the actions of the government of this country, and the wealthy elites that it
has defended.[…]

Many migrant workers in California
on H-2A temporary agricultural visas are forced to contend with unsafe working
conditions, wage theft and other labor law violations. The H-2A temporary
agricultural program allows employers to bring workers from other countries,
mainly Mexico, for temporary farm labor in the U.S. The workers are given visas
that allow them to work in the U.S. but tie them to the employer that recruits
them. Part 2 of this story documents migrant workers housed like sardines, and
the use of immigration enforcement to expand the H-2A visa program

Tomato grower Harry Singh had an
idea for speeding up the harvest in the fields he rents at the Camp Pendleton
Marine Base near San Diego. His foreman told Serafín Rincón, 61, to pick beside
two imported contract workers in their 20s. In the summer heat, Rincón was told
to run. He could hardly keep up.

Rincón had come to work with his
friends Santiago Bautista and Rufino Zafra They were all longtime farm workers
in the area. Bautista had been working in San Diego since 2003, and Zafra since
1975. All day they had to listen to gritos(shouting) and insults from their
boss Celerino when they fell behind. "Stupid donkey, you're old now,"
he shouted at them. "You can't make it anymore!"[…]

Spokesperson for the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights: Ravina Shamdasani

Location: Geneva

Date: 5 June 2018

Subject: (1) Egypt, (2) United
States and (3) Ethiopia

[…]

(2) United States

We are deeply concerned that the
zero tolerance policy recently put in place along the US southern border has
led to people caught entering the country irregularly being subjected to
criminal prosecution and having their children – including extremely young
children -taken away from them as a result.

The practice of separating
families amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is
a serious violation of the rights of the child. While the rights of children
are generally held in high regard in the US, it is the only country in the
world not to have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We
encourage it to accede to the Convention and to fully respect the rights of all
children. […]

I work with children separated from caregivers at the
border. What happens is unforgivable.

The policy has a devastating
emotional impact on kids.

By Katie Annand, Vox

June 6, 2018

Helplessness. It’s what I feel
when children are faced with forced separation from their parent or caregiver
at the US border. Anger, sadness, uncertainty, and dismay all follow closely
behind.

I work as an attorney with an
organization called Kids in Need of Defense, or KIND, devoted to working with unaccompanied
children. I hear firsthand stories that illustrate the severe impact of family
separation on children; to say they are terrorized and completely devastated is
an understatement. This new terror is compounded by the trauma already
experienced by these children — the violence, persecution, and other harm they
faced in their home country that caused them to seek protection in the US in
the first place.[...]

Family Separation at Border May Be
Subject to Constitutional Challenge, Judge Rules

By Miriam Jordan, New York
Times

June 6, 2018

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in
San Diego on Wednesday refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Trump
administration’s practice of taking children from immigrants when they arrive
at the border to seek asylum, ruling that the “wrenching separation” of
families may violate the Constitution’s guarantees of due process.

“Such conduct, if true, as it is
assumed to be on the present motion, is brutal, offensive, and fails to comport
with traditional notions of fair play and decency,” Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the
Southern District of California wrote in his 25-page opinion.[…]

A family was separated at the
border, and this distraught father took his own life

That’s when Muñoz “lost it,”
according to one agent, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the
incident.

“The guy lost his s---,” the
agent said. “They had to use physical force to take the child out of his
hands.”

By Nick Miroff, Washington
Post

June 9, 2018

A Honduran father separated from
his wife and child suffered a breakdown at a Texas jail and killed himself in a
padded cell last month, according to Border Patrol agents and an incident
report filed by sheriff’s deputies.

The death of Marco Antonio Muñoz,
39, has not been publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security, and
did not appear in any local news accounts. But according to a copy of a
sheriff’s department report obtained by The Washington Post, Muñoz was found on
the floor of his cell May 13 in a pool of blood with an item of clothing
twisted around his neck.[…]

Thursday, June 7, 2018

[T]he Court’s decision presents
the nation with a chance to address a more fundamental issue: Is there really any
reason for the US government to deport non-citizens with criminal records?

By David L. Wilson, Truthout

June 6, 2018

On April 17 the Supreme Court
handed down a ruling that limited some of the excuses the government can use
for deporting people. At issue in the case, Sessions v.
Dimaya, was the meaning of “crime of violence” in immigration law;
immigration judges have relied on this very broad category to order some
non-citizens deported as “criminal aliens.” The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
in 2015 that the category was unconstitutionally vague and therefore
not a basis for deportation, and the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision upheld the
Ninth Circuit’s ruling.

The decision got a good deal of
media attention. Time
ran a headline claiming that the Court had “Dealt the White House a Big Blow on
Immigration.” But this type of coverage probably exaggerates the ruling’s
practical effect.[...]

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Trump migrant family separations
protested as U.S. is accused of violating human rights

The U.S. is violating "well
established Inter-American standards," such as rights to family and to
seek asylum and protection," said petitioners.

By Suzanne Gamboa, NBC News

June 1, 2018

Dagoberto A Melchor Santacruz
hasn’t seen his 16-year-old partially deaf son since the two came to the U.S.
border to ask for asylum. Maria Andrés de la Cruz awaits reunification with her
three young children that agents separated from her and put in an icy cold
cell. Antonio Bol Paau has been unable to find out where his 12-year-old son is
for days.

Migrant advocates and attorneys
accused the United States of human rights violations in an official complaint
filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Thursday. The
complaint came as activists protested in cities around the country against the
Trump administration's latest tactic aimed at curtailing immigration.[…]

Saturday, June 2, 2018

President Trump’s administration is ramping up immigration
enforcement in the interior of the United States and along the border. However, the near-half-century low in
illegal border crossers, the longer-settled illegal immigrant population inside
of the country, and resistance by state and local governments are hampering his
administration’s efforts to boost deportation.
Try as he might, his administration will not be able to ramp up removals
to the level seen in the first term of the Obama administration.[…]

Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
conducted a large-scale worksite raid at a meat processing plant in Bean
Station, Tennessee, arresting 97 immigrants and grabbing national headlines.
This action represents one of the Trump administration’s pushes to broaden
immigration enforcement rather than target serious criminal offenders. But this
type of enforcement isn’t new.

May 12 marks the 10-year anniversary of a massive raid at
another meatpacking plant called Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa. It was the
largest, single-site enforcement action conducted by ICE, which arrested and
processed 389 workers in the 2,200-person town. In just four days, most of
these workers were sentenced to five months in prison and deportation.[...]

ACLU Report: Neglect and Abuse of Unaccompanied
Immigrant Children by U.S. Customs and Border Protection

ImmigrationProf Blog

May 26, 2018

A new ACLU report (Neglect and Abuse of May 2018
Unaccompanied Immigrant Children by U.S. Customs and Border Protection) is
attracting attention. As the ACLU summarizes
the report, "Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union
featured in a new report released today show the pervasive abuse and neglect of
unaccompanied immigrant children detained by U.S. Customs and Border
Protection. The report was produced in conjunction with the International Human
Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.[…]

Friday, June 1, 2018

Swept up in the Sweep: The Impact of Gang Allegations on
Immigrant New Yorkers

New York Immigration Coalition

May 16, 2018

Swept up in the Sweep: The Impact of Gang Allegations on
Immigrant New Yorkers is a report by the New York Immigration Coalition and the
Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic (INRC) at the CUNY School of Law.
Through an extensive field study, the report shows how Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), with other federal agencies and law enforcement, uses
arbitrary methods to profile immigrant youth of color to allege gang
affiliation.

Deportation by Any Means Necessary: How Immigration
Officials Are Labeling Immigrant Youth as Gang Members

Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC)

May 21, 2018

Crimes Immigrant Youth Removal Defense Enforcement Asylum

This report details findings from a national survey of legal
practitioners concerning the increased use of gang allegations against young
immigrants as a means of driving up deportation numbers, at the encouragement
of the Trump administration. The report suggests emerging best practices for
immigration attorneys to employ in both fighting against unfounded gang
allegations and working to mitigate the impact of prior gang involvement.

About The Politics of Immigration

The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers is a book that goes beyond soundbites to tackle concerns about immigration in straightforward language and an accessible question-and-answer format. For immigrants and supporters, the book is a useful tool to confront stereotypes and disinformation. For those who are undecided about immigration, it lays out the facts and clear reasoning they need to develop an informed opinion. Ideal for classroom use, the updated and expanded 2017 edition provides a succinct overview of U.S. immigration history, policy, and practice, with detailed notes guiding readers toward further exploration.
Guskin and Wilson have written extensively on immigration and facilitated dozens of dialogues on the topic with students, community activists, congregations, and other public audiences. To arrange a dialogue or for more information, contact them at thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com.
To stay in the loop on author events and related resources, follow the book on Twitter (@Immigration_QA) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ImmigrationQA/).